'The Judge that Slept on Duty' By Adesina Ogunlana

THE LEARNED SQUIB

March 15, 2001

Mr. Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte slept on duty the other day. I mean Aldolphus Karibi Whyte, Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, slept while his court was going on.

Well, that’s not so calamitious a thing as you might think. After all, his Lordship did not snore in the process and all this goes on to show that despite all fiction, Lordships are not celestial entities but solidly affixed to the terra-firma. In short, judges are all too human.

Now, where did his Lordship snooze on duty and how did the Learned Squib learn of this? Tut, tut, tut. If you would only read the Comet Newspapers daily, you wouldn’t be missing out on salacious stories such as this. And the incident mercifully did not happen in Nigeria but at the International Court of Justice. Go and do your research.

The matter went on appeal and one of the grounds of appeal was that one of the panel of judges which tried the case to wit, our dear Adolphus Karibi-Whyte JSC, on certain occasions whilst trial was going on did take leave of this sinful world, only to come back after some hours and take off again.

The appeal was disallowed (afterall, not all the judges slept) but the Appeal Court held that indeed Karibi-Whyte JSC drifted into slumberland but for only 30 minutes and not for hours on end as alleged.

Karibi-Whyte JSC did not agree that he slept at all. He condemned the appellants for lying and clutching at straws. When I read his comments, I just laughed.

Of course, I did not believe our dear Adolphus. But that does not mean he does not have my sympathy. You know wherever there is an enabling environment, any reasonable man would drift into languor. Though I was not there, I know the court room where dear Adolphus committed the faux pas must be more comfortable than many Nigerian Affairs. Secondly, I am sure the litigants were wasting too much time speaking through their noses, and splitting hairs. Now that can be very boring to an erudite jurist like Karibi-Whyte JSC.

Of course the great jurist was not snoozing or sleeping or drowsing for fun or in vain. In his dreamland he was yet cogitating about the problems of the fatherland (e.g. permanent petrol queues) and how to solve them. Don’t even mind the appellants. Why didn’t they wake up the great jurist at the earliest opportunity? Why wait for him at the Appeal Court? What if at the Court of Appeal another great jurist had gone to slumber land?
MORAL: Equity does not favour the indolent.
2. Time is always of the essence when sleepy judges are involved.



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